The question of how much space a dog needs in a commercial kennel or dog day care center is proving not to be a walk in the park. A facility owner who has closely followed a committee drafting regulations for a new state law aimed at improving pet safety said members “stepped on a land mine.”
“You stepped on a land mine with this,” said Arianna Sutzco, general manager of Dogtopia in Worcester, referring to debate over space requirements. She said the regulations have been a work in progress for three or four years, with strong feelings on both sides.
At issue is Ollie’s Law, signed by Gov. Maura Healey in September 2024 and named for Ollie, a 7-month-old Labradoodle injured in a fight while staying at a dog day care center in 2020. The law clarified existing kennel license requirements and created a committee to decide standards for dog day care facilities and training kennels.
“This is a great thing,” committee member Jeni Mather said. “Massachusetts is one of the only states to have a group of stakeholders in the industry working together.”
But that may have been the only point of consensus, as the meeting became contentious, with members spending much of their time debating how much space a dog needs in each kennel.
Kevin Sullivan, an animal control officer on the committee, said he operates under what he considers a gold standard of 100 square feet for larger dogs.
Committee member Francine Coughlin disagreed.
“It’s hard to let the town choose the sizes as a business owner,” she said. “It’s different for every dog.”
The disagreement reflects a broader debate over how much authority the state should exercise.
“There are some who feel like it’s overreach and regulating things that don’t need to be regulated,” Sutzco added. She said she is concerned smaller establishments may be unable to keep up with the regulations imposed by Ollie’s Law, making it difficult to stay in business.
Nevertheless, Sutzco said she believes the regulations will be beneficial in the long run. Having sat in on previous meetings, she said “everyone on the committee seems to understand that the point and the goal is to set the minimum standard for safety, not the gold standard.”
She said her greatest worry involves training requirements. Currently, there are no strict standards for training kennel employees. She said there should be “some bare minimums on what kind of knowledge a human should have in order to be left alone with dogs.”
That issue has so far been left untouched.
“They’re avoiding it like the plague,” she said. While some members have raised it, she said the reluctance stems from a desire to allow each kennel and day care center to operate independently.
“All of that said, I 100% support it,” Sutzco said. “It’s going to help keep our dogs safe and our staff safe.”
The committee is working against a June deadline to complete its work.